Hello all. I was scouting around looking at my computer specs and realized that i just might be able to squeeze a few more years of use out of her.

I have an intel 945GPM mobo with a pentium D940 (which runs a 3.2Ghz stock)

From what i can tell the mobo is a socket 775 which could also facilitate a core 2 duo or maybe even a quad core???

I know my stuff is old but if anyone could let me know which processor i could upgrade to that would be a good compromise between performance and price and maybe keep it under $200. I don't really want to buy the baddest thing on the block more just looking for a year or two fix until i get a whole new comp.

Also i have a 3870 ati gpu and i think my main bottleneck when gaming is my cpu, especially with games like supreme commander

Also Also i am looking at specs right now and it seems that my mobo can only go up to 800Mhz FSB.... is that true or could i clock it up to 1066 somehow (I have never tried overclocking so don't really know what is and isn't overclockable, but i would like to try it)

It looks like i'll have to build a new pc anyway so is there any real benefit to the amd quad over say a similarly priced intel dual core. I like to do alot of gaming but the real purpose of my rig is for multitrack audio recording and some photoshop

well as of now, a higher clocked Dual Core is better than an lower clocked Quad Core when in gaming.
But Far Cry 2 seems to benefit the Quads, but not by much. So i am assuming that Quads will be in gaming by around next year.
For everything else, a quad core is better.

I recommended the 9600 because it's at such an amazing price. Only $119 for something that is almost as fast as the Q6600. The similarly priced Intel dual core would be the E7200 and I'd definitely take the Phenom over that.